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Mount Barker Earthquake

Magnitude: 3.8
Date: Friday 16 April 2010
Time: 11:27 pm (Australian Central Standard Time)
Epicentre: Between Mount Barker and Wistow
Latitude: -35.099°
Longitude: 138.866°
Focus: About 25 km deep

We do not know the location to better than 3 km horizontally and 5 km vertically.

The earthquake has been felt over a very wide area.

The Modified Mercalli Intensity scale can be used to report what people notice. For a magnitude 3.8 earthquake, we would expect intensity III out to a distance of 60 km, and intensity II to over 100 km from the focus. Intensity V is only likely to be experienced within 15 km of the focus. As the focus was about 25 km deep, very few people are likely to have felt this intensity.

Variable near surface geology may raise or lower the expected intensity a small amount.

Aftershocks are very common with shallow earthquakes, but unlikely with deeper earthquakes such as this one. The probability of a larger event is very small but cannot be ruled out.

PIRSA has installed a few portable recorders in the area to get improved data if aftershocks do occur.

Earthquakes in South Australia

This is the largest earthquake within 50 km of Adelaide since the 1954 earthquake (magnitude 5.5).

Four earthquakes of about magnitude 3.4 occurred near the Adelaide area in 1972, 1975, 1977 and 1979. An earthquake of magnitude 4.2 occurred 30 km east of Kapunda in 1966, and one of magnitude 4.6 occurred near Kingscote in 1964. In 1997 an earthquake of magnitude 5.1 south of Burra was also weakly felt in the Adelaide area.

The 20 most recent earthquakes in South Australia

 

Maps

Mount Barker earthquake location

Location of Mt Barker earthquake April 2010

Download a larger image of the map (.jpg, opens in new window)

Image from Google Earth (external site, opens in new window)

 Seismograph for Mount Barker earthquake

Mount Barker Seismogram

Download seismogram from the near Adelaide monitoring network

South Australian earthquakes

Link to SARIG earthquakes in South AustraliaAn interactive map showing all earthquakes in South Australia can be downloaded from the South Australian Resources Information Geoserver (SARIG). Select Earthquakes from the Data Layers list (to the right of the SARIG screen).